Another puzzle oriented design feature that the CME devs
integrated into the puzzle design were ways for characters to
“cheat” in the mini-games. “We did this
through the inventory and resource management portion of the
gameplay,” Joe said. “You can buy or acquire
various different means to assist you in playing these
mini-games.”

“For example,” he continued, “We
have one mini-game that’s basically a “connect the
dots” type puzzle, where you’re trying to move your
marker from the bottom of the screen to the top. In this puzzle, there
are various blocking tiles or squares that get in your way. By burning
one of these “cheat” items that you have in your
inventory, a player can tell the SGW client to eliminate a certain
section of these tiles to get you through the mini-game faster. These
items can be purchased from vendors, but they’ll also be part
of the crafting system that’s an integral part of
SGW.”

align="center">
style="font-style: italic;">Puzzles are an important part of
the gameplay in Ybarra's ideal vision of SGW.

The devs of SGW are steering away from limiting the types of
puzzles players can engage in, and they aren’t restricting
the archetypes that can solve certain puzzles. Instead, various
archetypes might be better at solving certain puzzles. For example, an
archaeologist would be better suited to deciphering a runic totem than
a soldier.

For players that are really interested in the
“puzzle-solving” gameplay, you don’t need
to fret about the puzzles in SGW being an afterthought of the
game’s design. Joe was acutely aware that puzzles were a core
part of the TV show, and therefore are being incorporated as a core
part of the gameplay in SGW. “We have puzzles for everything
from reverse engineering to mini-games that are inherent to the
crafting system,” he added. “These puzzles are
intertwined within the storylines, the playing fields, and the resource
management portions of our game. We’re trying to make a
really robust environment for that type of gameplay.”

Formulating a Plan

While these mini-games are the most obvious form of puzzle
solving within SGW, you can’t mention puzzles without
examining the inherent mental acuity needed to deduce where players
need to go and what the need to do when they’re trying to
complete a mission. Every game – single or multilayer alike -
has this level of puzzle solving, but Stargate Worlds has put a new
spin on things.

In SGW, it’s particularly interesting to try to
figure out the location of certain quests, because traveling from
planet to planet is no longer a tedious trek across worlds and has
become more exciting than simply locating a location on a compass.
“For us, since we don’t have a geographic basis to
everything like other games do; players need to figure out what the
next step in a quest might be. How do you know where you’re
supposed to go next?” Joe said. “The solution to
that problem was to include this sort of puzzle solving in the
storyline.”

“You have all these different story tracts
– and there are bunches – and you’re
using them to help you track down where to go next,” he
continued. “But the story tracts also have a lot of
puzzle-solving involved with them as well. Thus, you’re
getting a lot of puzzle-solving in the game both in an obvious and
passive sense.”

Puzzles Involving Storyline

One of the most intriguing parts of SGW, at least to this
intrepid reporter, is the fact that CME wants players to reach
level-cap quickly. When they were in their initial development phase,
Joe wanted to insure that players would have the opportunity to see
every part of the SGW gameplay, rather than limiting that player to a
single character type’s storyline.

style="font-style: italic;">
style="font-style: italic;">Each faction will have its own
particular puzzles on its specific storyline.

Take WoW for example, how many players have played every
single race/class combo? This was Joe’s goal in heightening
the pace of the game to insure that players have the chance to replay
the game. Whether you’re playing as an Asgaard, a Free Jaffa,
or a Goa’uld, you’ll each encounter a storyline
specific to your race. Once you get to the different archetypes, the
storylines branch off even further.

But CME hasn’t totally separated the storylines from
each other. Joe made a point to describe just how intertwined each of
the storylines – even the bad vs. the good – are to
one another. When you enter an instance, you may encounter good or bad
PCs, and dealing with these characters – on top of completing
your puzzles – is at the heart of what SGW is all about.
Players will have the opportunity to prevent their counterparts from
completing puzzles – aside from straight PvP – and
will be forced to interact with their enemies in certain parts of each
storyline.

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Stargate Worlds
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